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I was slapped, beaten by my subjects a month after installation –Traditional ruler

August 10, 2013 : Gbenro Adeoye

A Yoruba saying forbids the beating of a king, and this probably applies to a Baale, which is lesser in stature to a king. But on July 18, 2013, none of the assailants who stormed Ehin-Ogbe community, Ogijo in Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State, heeded that maxim. The assailants beat up the Baale of Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru, Mr. Akeem Elupepe.

The units that make up Ehin-Ogbe community are more or less villages, with each having a Baale that manages its affairs. Aside from Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru, the others are Ehin-Ogbe Adesiku, Ehin-Ogbe Eewumi, Ehin-Ogbe Lambo Lasunwon, Ehin-Ogbe Aro-Efolu, and Ehin-Ogbe Ewujebe.

Elupepe was installed as the Baale Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru on June 26, 2013. Less than a month after, some people from the community came to beat him up. Two persons- Elupepe and Mr. Taiwo Okeowo- had vied for the village’s top position, so naturally, fingers in the border village pointed at Okeowo for sponsoring the assault on the Baale.

Four of Elupepe’s supporters that were with him were also reportedly beaten, while some other residents known to be loyal to him, fled the village.

Elupepe, who has since vacated the community for a hide-out following the incident, also identified his rival, Okeowo, and two of his brothers, as responsible for his ordeal in the hands of the suspected hoodlums.

Speaking to Saturday PUNCH on the telephone, Elupepe said he was still afraid for his life and was unwilling to leave the comfort of his hide-out just yet.

Elupepe insisted that he had no doubt that Okeowo had a hand in the attack.

He said, “The people behind the attack were Taiwo Okeowo and his brothers -Moshood and Bashiru. They brought more than 100 land speculators, who were armed with guns, machetes, sticks and charms into the community.

“The land speculators beat us mercilessly. We were seriously beaten and physically injured. I was slapped and dragged on the ground and my clothes were torn. After the beating, I was unconscious. I was taken to Ijede General Hospital, where I was revived. My Isuzu Rodeo Sports Utility Vehicle was also damaged; it was smashed from the rear.

“We were attacked with sticks, machetes and some of the hoodlums even shot into the air, but they didn’t shoot directly at us. I had bruises all over my body and a black eye, while the other people that were attacked sustained various degrees of injuries. Some shops were also looted and many people fled their homes. Those people also came with traditional charms, which were used to attack me. In fact, I’m still recovering from the effect of the charms.”

Elupepe said he was transferred from Ijede General Hospital to Ikorodu General Hospital, but was not fully healed.

“The charms used on me gave me some abnormal feelings, internal injury and strange body reactions that the hospitals could not treat. So, I had to engage the services of traditional healers,” he added.

Since the incident which led Elupepe to vacate his seat, he said he was yet to set his foot in Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru. He added that his family members had also been evacuated from the village for fear of another attack.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru had been embroiled in crisis since the death of its former Baale in late 2012. The village’s founding family was Lasunwon Royal family. Claims to the seat of power are determined by the strength of aspirants’ lineage to the royal family.

Some residents, however, explained that the current crisis goes deeper, beyond honest rivalry for a position. They claimed the problem arose from a deep animosity in the community towards strangers nursing ambition to be the ruler.

“And with some prominent families in the community divided between the two candidates- Elupepe and Okeowo, there was bound to be trouble,” a source said.

It was also learnt that before now, the prominent families of the village had been having confrontations with one another over land deals. With the mainstay of Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru and the adjoining communities woven around land deals, land speculators are never in short supply in the area.

A source said, “Another thing here is that the true indigenes of this place know themselves and the people whose fathers migrated here. So, they are touchy about that and will fight to make sure that someone who is not considered a true indigene does not take up a prominent position here.”

Elupepe was installed as Baale of Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru by the Igode Royal Family Council, Igode. As a much bigger community with a 2nd Class Oba (King), Igode reportedly endorses chiefs for smaller adjoining communities and handles some other chieftaincy matters.

But in the absence of the King, Onigode of Igode, who is late, the rites endorsing Elupepe as Baale were done by the Regent, who was identified as ‘Lawyer Talabi’ and titled as ‘Lisa’.

Shortly after Elupepe was installed, however, he received invitation from the Area ‘N’ Police Command, Ijede, following a petition from Okeowo’s camp.

Elupepe confirmed the police invitation in the phone conversation with Saturday PUNCH, saying, “They alleged that I should not be the Baale, and that I owned guns and used to rape.

They made so many allegations.

“The police brought a letter of invitation and five of us with one Sergeant went to Area ‘N’ to honour the invitation. From there, we were moved to Adeniji Police Station where we were detained.

“Later, they let us go when they realised that it was a chieftaincy matter. I was even coming from the police station, along with four others when we were attacked.

“After we left the police station, we were escorted by some police officers who followed us in their vehicle. But as the police were about to turn back at the entrance to the village, we started hearing gunshots.

“We asked the police to follow us and they promised that they were behind us. But when we got inside the village, we realised that the police had turned back. As we got down from our vehicle, the land speculators descended on us and almost killed us.”

However, the source identified the cause of the crisis as starting from the moment Elupepe showed interest in becoming the Baale.

The source continued, “As I said, the indigenes take their lineage seriously here. So, people may play with you and deal with you but they never forget where you come from. Elupepe is already established here, but people know that he was not originally from here. His father came here to work and then settled down here, so Elupepe pushed his luck too far when he ran to become the Baale.”

Similarly, Okeowo, who was seen as Elupepe’s rival, said as much when Saturday PUNCH caught up with him at Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru.

Many of Okeowo’s supporters had already adopted the use of ‘Baale’ when addressing him, along with being accorded some of the respect that follows the office.

Okeowo explained that he had been chosen as Baale of Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru ever before Elupepe’s arrival to the community.

“That’s why you hear everyone calling me ‘baale, baale’,” he said.

Okeowo told Saturday PUNCH that Elupepe had no claim to the seat of the Baale of Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru. He said Elupepe’s father was a famous bricklayer in Ikorodu, Lagos, who had come to Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru in search of work.

“He came here to work as a bricklayer and that was how he went round many communities to build houses. But his father defrauded our fathers in a land deal and that was how they came to own land here.

“Elupepe’s father illegally sold out 141 plots of our land. We had a family meeting and at the meeting, the founding family here, Lasunwon family, of which we are direct descendants, decided to let the matter go and just collected ratification on the land illegally sold.

“In spite of this, the family still gave Elupepe’s family three acres of land here. So that was how they got here. I was the one who went to show Elupepe the three acres the day he came, after he was called to take control of his father’s property. His family was warned not to trespass beyond their boundary. Still, Elupepe has been trespassing and selling land belonging to our family, using our letterhead.

“For Elupepe to now say he will rule over us (original indigenes) is impossible. He is not an indigene and not a family member. He is an alien here; he sold our lands illegally and forged documents. He’s not in any way entitled to be our ruler; he can’t be our Baale.”

On the allegation that he had sponsored the alleged attack on Elupepe, Okeowo, denied knowledge of the attack in the village. He countered Elupepe’s allegations with claims that he and his group were the ones who suffered in the hands of Elupepe’s ‘boys’.

He accused Elupepe’s supporters of being responsible for the disturbance of peace in the community, and alleged that they battered one of his brothers, Mr. Muiz Okeowo, into unconsciousness.

“They (Elupepe’s group) attacked us and beat up Muiz Okeowo, my brother. They left him out there in a pool of water and thought he was dead. That was why he (Elupepe) ran away from the village and couldn’t come back since then.

“Even the families behind Elupepe’s ambition are also strangers in this land; none of them has any claim here.”

Okeowo accused the Igode Royal Family Council of corruption dealings, which he claimed to have led to his rival’s endorsement.

In addition, Okeowo questioned the authority of Igode Royal Council to endorse a Baale for his community.

He said, “Igode council endorsed him, but they are not kingmakers. Also, their king is late and in such a situation, the responsibility should fall on the monarchs of other big towns like Sagamu, Ogijo, and Ikorodu.

“When we heard that they were planning to endorse Elupepe as Baale, we wrote letters to them, but they still went ahead. I also believe that other things were involved because Lawyer Talabi once told us to let Elupepe be because he had spent so much money already for Igode chiefs. His suggestion was for us to later sue Elubebe for unlawfully occupying the seat.”

Investigation shows that some supporters of Elupepe, who deserted their houses were yet to return two weeks after the incident. Their tenants declined to comment on the issue for fear of being dragged into the matter and possible attack.

But a resident, who did not give his name, said his father, who also left the village for neighbouring Ikorodu town would not be returning anytime soon.

“It also affected my father,” he said. “He ran to Ikorodu and warned me to leave the house but I told him that no one would attack me since I didn’t make trouble with anyone. Although, my brother was wounded the day the assailants came, I think it was because he tried to defend our father.”

An uneasy calm has returned to Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru, but the presence of the land speculators was still visible when Saturday PUNCH visited.

Residents said the calm could be disrupted any moment the dethroned Baale steps into the village.

A resident, who wanted anonymity, insisted that most residents are safe, in spite of the ongoing crisis in the community.

He said, “The truth is that many people panicked and ran out of their homes when the hoodlums came, but Taiwo Okeowo was going from house to house to calm people down. He was telling residents to go about their businesses, that they didn’t have problem with residents.

“His grudge was with Elupepe and his supporters and those are the ones who left and haven’t returned. All other residents are back in their houses and going about their businesses normally.

“I know that Elupepe once hit Okeowo too over a land dispute, so it was an opportunity for Okeowo to get back at him.”

At Igode, the regent, Talabi was not available but the palace scribe, Mr. Rafiu Disu, denied any wrongdoing on the part of the Igode Royal Council.

Disu said the council only gave its blessing to the candidate presented by the community.

The palace scribe said, “It’s the family that appoints the Baale and prays for him, then bring him to Igode for our blessing because he has to come and sit with us at the palace since they are under Igode’s authority, including other small communities around here.

“The family came with Elupepe and said he’s the Baale. They came with an elderly woman as the elderly person in the family. We took him and prayed for him at the Onigode palace, gave him a cap and beads.

“Then later, they sent a letter and said Taiwo Okeowo is the one they want as Baale and not Akeem Elupepe. But both parties address letters to us with the same letterhead, so we called the two of them to a round table to ask what the problem was.

“We asked the other party if Elupepe was a killer, rapist or a kidnapper and they said ‘no’. They said he sold their land, bought a car and built a house. The regent still went to meet the family at home to resolve the dispute and the aggrieved party accepted that Elupepe should get our blessing as the Baale. So, we don’t know what they are fighting over again.”

The scribe also denied allegations of corruption levelled against the council, saying, “Nothing like that ever took place. It’s also a lie that Igode has no authority over the units in Ehin-Ogbe. Even when the last Baale of Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru died, he was brought here for the final traditional rites. The regent has the authority to perform functions till we have a new king.”

Meanwhile, the rulers of the other five villages in Ehin-Ogbe community, were not pleased with the negative attention the community had received lately.

For instance, the representative of the Baale of Ehin-Ogbe Adesiku, Chief Munirudeen Arogundade, told Saturday PUNCH that other villages within Ehin-Ogbe community have been free of controversies.

“No problem in Ehin-Ogbe generally, the problem is only in Ehin-Ogbe Tuuru, one of the six villages in the community. We all have our rulers,” he said.

Residents of Ehin-Ogbe claimed that Lagos and Ogun Police Commands both assume responsibility for the security of the border community. But the Police Public Relations officer, Ogun State , Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, did not respond to calls and a text message sent to his phone.

However, his Lagos counterpart, Ngozi Braide, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH on the telephone, promised to get back on the issue, but she never did.

The former occupier of the post died and that’s why someone is occupying the seat remember both of you would die,so fear GOD in everything you do.

M1

So long a story, can’t be bothered one bit to read. Pure waste of time, these cheap traditional institutions will be wiped away some day soon. All man must go and work for their living and not leech on the populace

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